Shoaib Akhtar is showy and that is what many people believe. But the Pakistani pace bowler can afford to be like that because it hardly affects his performance on the ground.

The 'Rawalpindi Express' has been out of the international scene for quite sometime but he has got a quite strong fan following wherever he goes.

He was playing his first game for Worcestershire against Bangladesh on Sunday and the holiday crowd here cheered his every noticeable movement on the field.

After hitting two cracking boundaries the Pakistani pace demon took the ball in his hand when Bangladesh came out to bat needing 168 runs for victory. He was really hitting the deck and Javed Omar had no clues as those thunderbolts flew past him.

"Do you like it this way," remarked Shoaib as he strolled to third man after finishing his first over amidst applause from the stands.

His first spell read 4-1-4-1 that included the wicket of Rajin Saleh, who fended a sharp rising ball behind the wicket.

He also entertained the crowd when he fixed a new footmark for umpire Steve Garrath who went along with the fun.

And finally Shoaib drew children like honeybees and cheerfully obliged those tiny autograph hunters.